Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Biruta, received today a courtesy call from Heads of Diplomatic Mission Group of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) led by Eduardo Octávio, Ambassador of Angola to Rwanda.
The group is made of Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
SADC agreed in early May to send troops to eastern DRC to help fight M23 rebels in the country’s east. The SADC approved the deployment during a summit in Namibia.
The deployment will also add to an East African regional military force that has taken over some areas previously occupied by the M23 rebels since December but has so far failed to thwart the insurgency.
The East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) troops from Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda are currently operating in eastern DRC.
However, DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi has said that EACRF may be expelled by June if their mandate is not fulfilled.
President Tshisekedi has been critical of the EACRF since it was deployed to eastern DRC in November 2022, saying that it has not enforced the withdrawal of the M23.
The EACRF has had some success. Since arriving in Goma, capital of the North Kivu province, the force has secured critical infrastructure, including the international airport and its surrounding areas, which are full of impromptu refugee camps.
The EACRF’s presence also has forced the M23 from Karuba, Mushaki, Neenero, Kirolirwe, Kibirizi, Mweso and adjacent areas, the EACRF said in a statement.
More than 120 armed groups are active in the region, most notably the M23, which staged a major offensive in 2022, seizing large chunks of territory in the North Kivu province and forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
The DRC accuses its smaller central African neighbour Rwanda of backing the M23, something Rwanda has repeatedly denied.
Rwanda has repeatedly accused the DRC of colluding with the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), a Rwandan Hutu rebel movement, some of whom were involved in the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.
A Tutsi-majority rebel group, the M23 first made a name for itself when it took the eastern DRC city of Goma in 2012, before being driven out and going dormant.
But it took up arms again at the end of 2021, accusing the DRC of not having kept its promise to integrate its fighters into the army. (End)